


You Don't Have To Keep Me Falling Like This

by behindtintedglass



Category: The Voice (US) RPF, The Voice RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-12 10:39:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 3,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4476230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/behindtintedglass/pseuds/behindtintedglass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the aftermath of Blake's divorce, he and Adam struggle to figure out just where they stand.</p><p>An ongoing series of related drabbles based on <a href="http://alwaysbellamyblake.tumblr.com/post/111909165950/send-me-a-pairing-and-a-number-and-ill-write-you">this meme</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“No.”  Adam folds his arms stubbornly.

Blake looks up at him, and he wants to be angry. He wants to lash out at his friend, who has the audacity to think that he can barge into Blake’s life anytime he wants. 

But he can’t hurt the only person he has left on his side, the only one who still understands him despite how bullshit his life is right now. 

So he asks, and pleads.

“Please, Adam.  Please, just for tonight, leave me alone.” 

Adam tilts his chin up challengingly.  “Come over here and make me.”

And that is it.  That is the final straw.  Blake stands up to his full height, all six foot five of him towering over Adam, and he strides over to where Adam is standing at the door, blocking Blake’s way out.

Adam stares back at him calmly.  He doesn’t back down.

Blake wants to hit him.  He raises his hand—

—and Adam doesn’t flinch.

And Blake finds himself suddenly sagging, falling into Adam’s arms. 

Adam catches him easily.

“Why are you still here?”  Blake asks, and he’s furious, he’s sad, he’s confused, and he doesn’t know how to feel, except he needs Adam right now, and he can’t even tell him that.

But perhaps Adam knows, because he wraps his arms around Blake.

“Because you need me,” Adam says, and finally, Blake breaks.

“I’ll ruin you,” Blake whispers.  “I’ll ruin you the same way I ruined everyone else.”

“I’m not Miranda,” Adam says simply.  “And I’m not Kaynette either.”

“I don’t want you to be the next one.”

And at that answer, Adam stills.

“I’m not going to be,” he says calmly.

 _And isn’t that supposed to be a good thing?_   Blake thinks. Yet he feels his insides shrinking; he doesn’t know if he has it in himself to love again.

Miranda took his heart with her.

Or rather, Blake gave it to her for safekeeping…

And she didn’t.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-minute fill for prompt number one: **"Come over here and make me."**


	2. Chapter 2

“What are you doing?”  Blake hisses.

Adam isn’t even looking at him as he throws his trademark smirk to the cameras.  “Holding your hand,” Adam states matter-of-factly.

“I know,” Blake bites out, “I mean — _why_ are you holding my hand?”

Adam merely squeezes his fingers.  “Because you’re shaking.”

And indeed, Blake is.  Blake swallows, not even realizing how afraid he is. 

“It’s going to be okay,” Adam says softly, as he turns to look at Blake.

Blake looks back at him, and he knows that the cameras are still flashing everywhere.  He also knows that tomorrow, their photos will be plastered all over the Internet, and no one can ever deny the way they’re looking at each other.

Everyone will speculate on who exactly Blake has cheated with — who the cause of the divorce really is — and it’s so ironic that if they think it’s Adam, it’s not even true. 

“Have you lost your damn mind?” Blake mutters through gritted teeth.

Adam merely smiles and steps closer.

“A long time ago,” he confirms.  “Along with my heart.”

Blake touches Adam’s wedding ring, and it feels shockingly cold.

“Behati is lucky to have you,” Blake says slowly, and Adam frowns.

“Yeah…” Adam steps back.  “She is, isn’t she.”

Adam finally lets go of Blake’s fingers; it makes Blake feel hollow. 

And Adam… 

Blake blinks as Adam shoves his hands into his pockets and walks away all of a sudden.

And Blake can’t help but think:  _There goes the only person left who believes in me_. 

He deserves this, anyway.

He deserves to be alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-minute fill for prompt number two: **"Have you lost your damn mind?"**


	3. Chapter 3

“You’re avoiding me.” 

Adam stiffens at Blake’s voice.  There is no blame or condescension in the tone — it is merely a clinical statement of an observation.

“I am,” Adam readily admits.

Blake nods.  “Probably for the best,” he says quietly.  “You really shouldn't be caught hanging around with the likes of me.”

And that makes Adam inexplicably angry.  “Enough with your self-pity, Shelton!” he bursts out — and immediately, Adam wants to take it back, because it isn’t what he wants to say.

Blake looks at him, and for an infinitesimal second, Adam sees in those blue eyes the depth of hurt Blake is carrying, before it is wiped clean with the next blink and the country star is all stoic business all over again.

“I’m trying my best,” Blake says, and stands up.

“Wait—" Adam chokes as he nearly stumbles when he rushes after Blake, who is walking defiantly away.  “Wait, Blake, _please_!”

Blake stops, but he doesn’t turn around.

“Please don’t leave,” Adam begs, and he realizes at that moment that he means it. 

He needs Blake just as much as Blake needs him — if only the stubborn fool admits it to himself, too.

“I need to,” Blake answers, “Otherwise, your career will be ruined too.”

“Damn my career,” Adam bites out.

“You don’t have that choice,” Blake says as he finally turns around.  “Maroon 5 is counting on you too, and I love those boys as much as you do.  Don’t drag them down with our shit.”

Adam throws his hands in the air.  “There is not even an _us_ , Blake!”

Blake only smiles sadly.  “Exactly.  And let’s keep it that way.  For everyone’s sake.”

Adam marches forward.  “Why? _Why_ must we keep it _this_ _way_ for everyone’s sake? What about _yours_? What about _mine_?”

Blake doesn’t answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-minute fill for prompt number three: **"Please, don't leave."**


	4. Chapter 4

Adam knows the show is suffering because of them. The audience, apparently, misses the snarky banter between him and Blake.  The ratings are now dropping because he and Blake are being nice to each other, for once.

Adam frowns.  No, _nice_ is perhaps not the right word.  _Polite_ , maybe. Painfully, ridiculously polite.

It’s like they’re back in Season 1, where they’re testing the waters and feeling each other out.  This time, however, it’s forced and unnatural, as Adam refuses to rise to the bait.

Blake, on the other hand, has withdrawn into himself, and isn’t fighting for the artists as much anymore.  It’s as if he doesn’t mind if he loses, considering… he’s losing it all, anyway.

His marriage.  His career. His self-worth.

Adam looks over to the other chair and sees how Blake isn’t even properly listening to the contestants.  He is hunched over in his seat, as if he is trying to make himself as small as the tabloids are making him feel.

Adam presses his lips together thoughtfully. As soon as Carson calls for a commercial break, he strides over to Blake’s seat. 

Blake blinks as Adam motions for him to follow. Pharrell and Gwen cast curious glances at them, but they know better than to step in.

As soon as they both reach the trailer, Adam swirls around to face Blake.

“You’re too tense, man.  It’s making us all uncomfortable looking at you.”

Blake scratches his head in embarrassment. “I’m sorry.  I just… couldn’t feel it.  The show, I mean.  It’s like… I’m not really here.”

Adam bites his lip.  “Do you… well… I mean…”  He takes a deep breath. “I could give you a massage?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-minute fill for prompt number four: **“Do you… well… I mean… I could give you a massage?”**


	5. Chapter 5

Blake blinks at Adam’s offer.  They’ve never really respected each other’s boundaries, but Blake knows it’s mostly for show — for the ratings.  

This is something else altogether.  It’s not even remotely sexual, but there’s something more deeply intimate about the way Adam is offering physical comfort.

Adam is shifting his feet uncomfortably, and Blake relents.

“I’d like that,” he says softly.

Something in Adam’s face brightens, and together they settle on the couch, with Adam leaning up on his knees to reach Blake’s shoulders.

“Why are you so tense, anyway?” Adam muses as he carefully kneads the tightly coiled muscles.

Blake sighs.  “Your wife came in."

Adam stills.  “Wait a minute. Are you jealous?”

“Yeah,” Blake says quietly.  “But not of her.  Of you.”

“Me?”  Adam repeats confusedly.

Blake smiles sadly.  “You still have your wife.  You have a wonderful angel who still cares for you, loves you, like you’re a divine being instead of a flawed human.  I don’t have that, anymore.”

For a long moment, Adam doesn’t say anything. Then, to Blake’s astonishment, Adam slides his arms forward and locks his hands with Blake’s, his chest flush against Blake’s back.

“I’m not an angel,” Adam says, “But I’m here, nevertheless. You have me.  Flawed human being and all, who loves you the way you are.”

And Blake pretends that he doesn’t hear the word the Adam uses, because he can’t let himself accept that.

He can’t ruin this human being the way he ruined the previous two angels in his life.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-minute fill for prompt number five: **“Wait a minute. Are you jealous?”**


	6. Chapter 6

Blake stares, feeling like he has stepped into a twisted version of the twilight zone.  He wonders if he’s high, or drunk, or dreaming, or possibly all three at once, because his eyes must be playing a trick on him.

“Uh,” he manages to stammer out, “Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?”

Behati looks up at him coyly, arching her back and crossing her legs, and Blake can’t deny the utter sensuality and grace of her movement. There’s a reason Victoria’s Secret picked her.

There’s a reason why she’s the wife of the sexiest man alive.

“My husband likes what he sees when he looks at me,” Behati says casually.  “Do you, Blake?”

Blake has absolutely no idea what’s going on. “What exactly are you doing? I don’t want to be the reason for your marriage to fall into ruins the way mine did.”

Behati sits up and smiles at Blake.  “The way I see it, my marriage is heading in that direction anyway, unless I salvage it.”

Blake stares.  “And how do you intend to do that?”

Behati swings her legs over the bed and walks up to Blake. He very determinedly stares at her face, and nothing lower.

“I want to make my husband happy,” Behati says softly as she reaches up to caress Blake’s stubble.  “But I’m also a very possessive, selfish woman.  I can’t give him up.  So I figured…”

Her hands cup Blake’s jaw. 

“I figured it’s time I learn how to share.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-minute fill for prompt number six: **“Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?”**


	7. Chapter 7

Blake wraps his fingers around Behati’s wrists and pulls her hands away from his face.

“Behati,” he says, “You are perhaps the loveliest creature to ever walk on this earth—"

“With the exception of Miranda?” Behati cuts in with a raised eyebrow.

And damn, his heart still lurches at the mere mention of her name. Blake refuses to answer that, and says instead, “But I can’t let you do this.  Whatever’s going on with Adam and me, I don’t intend to take it anywhere further.  You have my word.”

Behati cocks her head at him thoughtfully. “You have no idea, do you Blake?” she murmurs.

Blake simply shakes his head as he retrieves the robe from the bed. “I think I do,” he says, “And it’s exactly why I’m refusing to do this with you.  Or with him.”

Behati smiles at him when he motions for her to turn around. Carefully, he slips the robe through her arms and over her shoulders, and he walks around to carefully tie the knot by her waist. 

The gesture is one of gentle care even as it is very clearly a rejection. Behati tilts his chin up to force him to meet her eyes. 

“I almost,” she pauses, as her gaze softens, “Lost you.”

Blake’s eyebrows furrow.  “What are you talking about?”

She leans forward, touching her forehead to Blake’s chest.

“I almost turned you into someone you’re not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-minute fill for prompt number seven: **“I almost lost you.”**


	8. Chapter 8

Blake frowns.  "Was this a test?"

He feels Behati chuckling sadly, the vibrations rumbling across his chest.  “Something like that,” she admits. She looks up, and Blake doesn’t have the heart to berate her when he sees the guilt and sincere apology in her eyes.

She really is beautiful.  Tragically so. 

He reaches over to brush the hair away from her face. “What did you want to find out about me?” he asks, genuinely curious.

Behati shrugs helplessly.  “I want to find out what kind of man my husband has fallen in love with.”

Blake shakes his head.  “You know that’s not true.”

Behati levels a stare at him.  “Wanna bet?”

"...No, I don’t.  I really, really don’t.”

Behati laughs this time.  “Miranda married a good man,” she declares.  “And that’s why the good man decided to let her go, even though he technically wasn’t cheating.”

“Behati—”

“If you’re given permission, it’s not cheating, you know.”

“I _can’t_ — _”_

“ _Shush_ ,” Behati silences him with a finger to his lips, and Blake sighs.  His life is full of women with whom he can’t get a word in edgewise.

(Women whom he loves, and will never, ever hurt. Over his dead body.)

Behati wraps her arms around him in an unexpected embrace.

“It’s not cheating,” she whispers, “if the other man is also finally single again.”

“Behati, you _can’t_ —!”

“I can.”  She leans back and holds his gaze.  “Let me be the martyr, this time.  You don’t have to be the only one.”

Blake looks at her for a long moment before burying his head onto her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” he says brokenly.  “I’m so, so sorry.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-minute fill for prompt number eight: **“Wanna bet?”**


	9. Chapter 9

Adam is seriously floored.  Three chairs away, Blake is smirking at him like the cat who got the canary.

“What are you doing, Shelton?” Adam yells indignantly. Beside him, Gwen is giggling and Pharell is shaking his head in amusement.

Blake lifts his eyebrows innocently.  “I’m doing what I always do.”

And he breaks out into a grin that Adam hasn’t seen in a very, very long time.

“I’m winning.”

The audience bursts out laughing, finally dissolving the tense atmosphere that has been surrounding the studio for _weeks._

Adam can’t help but stare at a smiling Blake Shelton.  He feels like his ribs can't contain the way it makes his heart swell.

He carefully schools his face into an expression of stoic anger. “So you mean to say, you’ve been sneaking up on me all this time?  Playing the sad sick puppy… only to steal my contestants away from me?”

Adam has reached Blake’s seat by now, and he is vibrating with suppressed energy.  He wants to hit Blake, wants to kiss him, wants to melt into his arms all at the same time, and he clutches Blake’s seat to get a hold of himself.

“Don’t you ever do that again,” Adam whispers, and he doesn’t mean this competition.

He means the way Blake’s eyes shutters when he looks at Adam, the way Blake pulls away to lick his wounds alone, the way Blake seems intent on falling into the hell of loneliness without Adam, when Adam will freely jump into the flames with him.

This time, Blake looks at him, eyes as clear as the sky on a sunny day, and understands.

“I won’t,” he promises with a smile.

And then, just because the cameras are still rolling, he adds with a smirk:

“Though you can’t blame the artists if they love me more than you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-minute fill for prompt number nine: **“Don’t you ever do that again!”**


	10. Chapter 10

Adam is busy tuning his guitar during the rehearsal for the live shows when he sees Blake sit by the drums.

Curious, Adam watches from the corner of his eye as Blake picks up the drumsticks.  He tries hitting a drum once, twice, before he catches Adam observing him.  Blake scratches his head in embarrassment. 

“I’ve always wanted to learn,” Blake admits. “Teach me how to play?”

Adam raises an eyebrow. “You’ve never played the drums? Ever?”

Blake gives him a withering look. “You’ve seen me on the dance floor. I have no sense of rhythm whatsoever.”

Adam tries valiantly to stop himself from smiling — and fails. 

“That’s true,” he readily agrees, and Blake glares scathingly, making Adam laugh.

He ends up teaching Blake to play along to one of Maroon 5’s songs, and somehow, they end up singing it together.

And Adam knows why.

Behati and Miranda have both been the light of their lives in different ways.  He and Blake truly loved them, and truly wanted to spend the rest of their lives with them.

But somehow… the heart wants what it wants, and even though Blake will never admit it — will never believe that he deserves this chance at love all over again — Adam knows that both women have already realised that they weren’t the keeper of their husbands’ hearts.

Not anymore.

And so Adam and Blake sing the song together, not for themselves, but for the women whom they truly wanted to love with everything they have, and give their lives and their music and their souls and hopes and dreams to.

It’s just that life has turned out quite differently than they have planned.

_“Look for the girl with the broken smile. Ask her if she wants to stay awhile. And she will be loved.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-minute fill for prompt number ten: **"Teach me how to play?"**


	11. Chapter 11

It’s Christmas, and Adam is pissed. 

He and Blake have been tabloid fodder for months now, as the paparazzi can’t help but be amused at how the two divorcees are now rumoured to be hanging out together.

Adam wants to punch whatever gods have given him this laughably ironic fate, because even though he very much wants the rumours to be true and have these “hangouts” as legitimate dates, Blake is still very much decided on making sure they’re not.

“Easy, Adam,” Blake murmurs when Adam clenches his fists as cameras flash in his face when they step out of the restaurant. “Don’t let it get to you.”

“How can you stand it?” Adam hisses.  “How can you stand everything they’re saying about us? About Behati?  About _Miranda_?”

“Because I take comfort in the fact that you know who I am, and I know you, and the rest of the world can go hang themselves.”

Adam blinks at that declaration, before another paparazzi gets a little too close.

Even Blake isn't able to stop him.

“Adam, don’t you dare throw that snowball— _god damn it!”_

Adam can’t help but feel smugly vindicated at the ruined camera, even as Blake drags him purposefully away and runs to their car. 

That’ll teach them to write about relationships they know _nothing_ about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5-minute fill for prompt number eleven: **"Don't you dare throw that snowba-, goddamit!"**


End file.
